Yle’s last weekly news reviews in Latin will be broadcast on Yle Radio 1 in December 2017. Nuntii Latini has been produced for Latin-speakers for more than 28 years.

The programme was created by radio host Hannu Taanila and Latinist Reijo Pitkäranta. Pitkäranta, who is a docent at the University of Helsinki, and professor Tuomo Pekkanen from the University of Jyväskylä, together with Virpi Seppälä-Pekkanen, have kept the programme running from the beginning.

“Yle thanks the Nuntii Latini team for nearly 30 years of unique cultural cooperation. The Latin news programme has been the only one of its kind, and widely known around the world. The programme was created in Finland, and for Yle, as a result of the coming together of visionary ideas and the right people; people often mistake it for an Italian programme, or think it is produced by Vatican Radio”, says producer Ari Meriläinen.

There are not many Latin speakers, and Nuntii Latini has always been produced for small audiences. Listeners are mostly Latin students, language enthusiasts and Latinists. The programme has also been used as teaching material. However, the internet now offers many opportunities for Latin language enthusiasts.

Learning content and services are an important part of Yle’s public service, and they are being continuously developed. In recent years, the focus has been on civic competencies and content of general interest. There is plenty of demand, for example, for improving the digital media skills of all age groups.

In addition to Finnish and Swedish news, Yle produces news in Sami, Romani, Finnish Sign Language, plain Finnish and Karelian, as well as in English and Russian.

Latin students can find all Nuntii Latini programmes starting from 2011 on Yle Areena at yle.fi/nuntii. In addition to the radio news, the pages contain all news in text format as well as some core vocabulary. The last Nuntii Latini weekly news review will be broadcast on Yle Radio 1 on Friday 21 December 2017 at 6:15 p.m.